


Broken Hero

by BookLover86



Series: And I Quote... [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, I don't even know what these tags are anymore, Oliver's POV, barry feels, but here i am, great life choices, i should be studying for finals, posting fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-09 23:56:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8918584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookLover86/pseuds/BookLover86
Summary: "He's got the eyes of innocence; the face of an angel. A personality of a dreamer and a smile that hides more pain than you can ever imagine." - Unknown





	

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own any characters or settings in this story.

***

 **Chapter 2 - Broken Hero**   
  
_"He's got the eyes of innocence; the face of an angel. A personality of a dreamer and a smile that hides more pain than you can ever imagine." - Unknown_   
  
     When Oliver first met Barry, he was leery of him. Barry was a bundle of energy and smiles, extremely intelligent and was as nerdy as Felicity. He didn't like him at first, but for Oliver, that's normal. He doesn't like anyone off the bat. He definitely didn't like Diggle at the beginning, but now, he's Oliver's closest friend. He was planning on just using Felicity for her technology smarts, but she quickly got under his skin in the best way possible.

     However, with Barry, it took a bit longer. Possibly because the kid practically radiated sunshine and rainbows. Never frowned, never stopped talking. The more time Oliver spent with him, though, the more he began to tolerate him. He definitely didn't trust him, but he didn't hate the kid either. It was kind of nice having his optimistic personality around, which Oliver certainly never had. Barry also made Felicity smile more, and Oliver loved seeing her smile.

     But when the truth about him came out, Oliver shut down immediately. Now, Barry was a nuisance, just another liar trying to play him. However, when they confronted him, that never ending smile dropped from his face, and his eyes hardened. He glared daggers at the older man and his lips twisted into a scowl that didn't sit right on his face. He became a broken, angry, shadowed kid, harboring way too much pain for his age. Apparently, his mother was murdered by something impossible and his father was imprisoned.

     Wow.

     Oliver didn't have the best life growing up, but at least he had both of his parents. Even though his father was killed, and his mother had a hand in it, he couldn't imagine being a kid, and your mother being murdered. On top of that, your father being sent to prison because of it, when you know that he wasn't the murderer. That must've been hard for him, but Oliver couldn't get past being lied to. It'd never been one of his strong suits.

     So he pushed Barry away. Away from Felicity, away from Diggle, and away from him. He couldn't take anymore lies, no matter the person. Lies are what made him who he was; lies are what ruined his life. Not the island, not Mirakuru, not his own cheating ways. Lies. If he hadn't lied, Sara wouldn't have come with him onto that boat. If his father hadn't lied to him, he could still be alive.

     If his mother hadn't lied to him, then he wouldn't have had to be stranded on an island for five hellish years. If he hadn't lied to Slade about Shado, then maybe Slade would be standing beside him as well. If he hadn't started lying to his mom, Thea, Laurel, Diggle, Felicity, then maybe they would be in a different position.

     Once he told Barry to beat it after the poor kid had spilled his tragic backstory, Oliver was then subjected to Felicity's death glare. She snapped at him and stormed out herself.

     Oliver put it to the back of his mind, choosing to focus closely on the problem at hand instead of the lying forensic scientist. He didn’t tell them the truth, but the kid was brilliant at his job. There was no denying that. Oliver didn’t think of Barry at all for the rest of the day, and especially not when the human who had been injected with Mirakuru punctured Oliver with a poisonous chemical.

     The next time he thought of the young man was when he opened his eyes and saw Barry leaning close to him. He grabbed him by the throat and sat up, standing up from his position on the metal table in the foundry. Barry’s eyes bugged out and he clawed at Oliver’s hands. Oliver growled at Barry, needing to know how Barry was down here. Felicity came out of nowhere, detaching Oliver from strangling the kid and explained the situation. He was mad that they had revealed his secret to a liar, but he had to make himself move past it. Slade was still out there, and they needed to stop him immediately.

     Barry stuck around for a couple more days, helping with the case. He leaned toward staying in the foundry and working from behind the scenes. It ended up being sort of nice to have him there. He smiled almost constantly, lighting up the room he was in. Oliver remembered why he liked the kid in the first place. If they hadn’t gotten off to such a bad start, maybe they could’ve been good friends.

     By the time their time together was over, Oliver held a soft spot in his heart for Barry, right alongside Felicity, Dig, Laurel, and Thea. He didn’t let many people into his life, but ended up happy that Barry was one of those he had. They sent Barry on his way, waving goodbye as he got on the first train out of Starling and back to Central.

     When they got back to the foundry, Oliver found a small box left on the workstation Barry had been using. It was labeled, _For Oliver_. It turned out to be a mask made of a soft fiber that conformed to his face and didn’t block his vision when shooting. Barry had listened to his request. The thought made his heart warm as Felicity put the mask on him and declared him to look like a hero.

     Things were beginning to go okay, until Felicity called Oliver to tell him that she would be gone for a few days visiting Barry. When he asked why, she had tearfully told him that Barry had been hit by lightning and was now in a coma. Oliver dropped his phone in shock. Barry? The same Barry who had helped them and held his own was in a coma? The thought was so foreign to Oliver that he had to sit down. Dig found him later in his makeshift gym, practicing his kicks and blocks. He had been there ever since the news had sunk into his mind.

     Nonetheless, Oliver forced himself to move on instead of dwelling on the comatose forensic scientist. Nine months later, Oliver received a strange call from a number he didn’t recognize. It was Barry, calling to say that he needed to talk to Oliver in person. He told him to meet him on the roof of Queen Consolidated in an hour and a half, wearing the costume of the Arrow, and he would arrive soon after. Oliver agreed, even though he didn’t see how he could be in Starling in one hour.

     Still, Oliver waited up there and was not disappointed. A large streak of red lightning came shooting up the side of the building and deposited one very much awake and alive Barry Allen. Oliver was speechless. After Barry explained everything that happened to him in his short life and what was happening now, he was obviously looking to Oliver for advice.

 _That’s a bad idea, Barry_ , Oliver thought, but spoke nothing of that. He gave Barry encouragement, telling him to be the hero Oliver never got to be. Once he left the building, he watched as Barry sped off into the distance, creating his own life and name as Central City’s brand new superhero.

     Their next meeting wasn’t under the most pleasant circumstances. Oliver had to fight and restrain an angry Barry, which was hard. He was wily and had gotten good at fighting since they had last met, but Oliver still had a few tricks up his sleeve. After they reversed the effects of Roy Bivolo, Barry apologized, but Oliver didn’t care about his apology.

     What he cared about was the brokenness that still resided in Barry’s eyes. Despite all the smiles and cheerfulness he gave out every day, the young hero was broken and stressed. He was far from whole, and Oliver doubted if anyone could ever fix him again. Still, he had to try, but he wasn’t alone in his attempts.

     Slowly, Oliver saw life return to Barry’s eyes. Broken glass would always reside in his gaze, but now it was outnumbered with the passion and intelligence that burned in there now. Barry would always be broken, as would Oliver, but the both of them were beginning to understand what it was like to be whole again, and Oliver wouldn’t give it up for the world.

***

**Author's Note:**

> SECOND ONE DONE
> 
> Be proud of me guys! This is actually my third post today on AO3. I finally got around to editing all this stuff and getting it up (ivedonethiswhenishouldbestudyingforfinalspleasehelpmeiamasmallchildwhoisnotready). Anyways, it was a bit short today, but I feel like it accomplished what I wanted it too. 
> 
> If you liked this, then you should check out some of my other stories. I've got an ongoing Miraculous Ladybug fic called "Treble Makers", a couple more one-shots with "Just A Child" (Danny Phantom) and "No Longer Human" (Teen Wolf). Plus, I just put out another story called "Lightning In A Bottle" that I've been writing since May and finally finished. It's another Flash/Arrow fic, but a bit more angsty than this one, so be warned. 
> 
> Thank you guys so much for reading this. Please leave comments if you loved it or hated it. I love reading all types of comments. They either make my day or show me ways to improve.
> 
> BookLover86, Out! ;)


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